Summary

Make success a matter of life and death to achieve

Monday, February 27, 2017 18:57

By SRI BHARATAM

“Success in life comes when you simply refuse to give up, with goals so strong that obstacles, failure and loss only act as motivation.”

A young man once asked Greek philosopher Socrates the secret to success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. When they met, Socrates asked him to walk with him into the river. When the water got up to their necks, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The man struggled to get out, but Socrates was strong and kept him there until he started turning blue.

Socrates then pulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air. Socrates asked: “ What did you want the most when your head was in the water?” The boy replied: “Air.” Socrates said: “That is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret.”

The motivation to succeed comes from the burning desire to achieve a purpose. Napoleon Hill wrote: “Whenever the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”

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A burning desire is the starting point of all accomplishment. Just like a small fire cannot give much heat, a weak desire cannot produce great results. Success means many things to many different people, depending on who they are, what they do, where they wish to be and so on. And success is measured differently. What success means to you may not mean the same to your neighbour, your teacher, your colleague, your partner or not even what it meant to you probably just yesterday. So if success is so elusive, how do we actually go about working towards the path of success?

Define what success means to you: There is no one universal definition to success. You need to constantly think of what motivates you, what inspires you and what you need to do to feel successful. Define it in no uncertain terms, make yourself understand it, accept it and feel it.

The key to success is to start before you are ready: Before anything else, the key to success is preparation. In fact the secret to success is when your preparation meets with your opportunities. Success does not usually come when you are under prepared or unplanned, so work hard preparing for it.

Success is 99 per cent attitude and one per cent aptitude: Your attitude towards life and work define your readiness for success. You do not have to be the best in the world to achieve success, you just have to be better than what you were. So go ahead and set your attitude to be the best.

Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire: Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for success. So if something does not challenge you enough, then there is a fair chance that it would not change you, so go ahead and find what sets your soul on fire and aim for it.

Believe in yourself that you can and you will: If there is one person who can stop you from succeeding, it is you; and if there is one thing that can come in the way between you and your success, it is your confidence. So go ahead, believe in yourself, your ability and your goals.

Don’t just stop by wishing for it, but work for it: Dreaming or doing is a choice that will mean the difference between failure and success. So work hard in silence, and leave success to make the entire noise.

If you want something that you never had, do something you have never done: Success is a journey and not a destination. And as you progress in your journey, you come across many obstacles. You may have to travel paths that you never took, do things that you never did. How else can you dream of achieving what you never had?

Success is not the key to happiness, it is happiness that’s the key to success: You are more likely to find happy people who are successful than successful people who are happy. So be happy with what you have, that does not mean you should not have the desire to achieve more, but learn to relish what you have.

When you feel like quitting, think about what made you start: Success is directly connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they do not quit.

Be true to yourself and stop comparing: Success if like your own shadow. If you try to catch it, you will never succeed, ignore it and walk in your own way and it will follow you.

And as they say, the secret of success is always in getting started. So do not wait for the perfect time because the perfect time is now, to start your journey to success and in this journey, keep reminding yourself of these five things: One, I am amazing and I trust myself as well as my capabilities. Two, I can do anything that I should be doing to succeed. Three, I believe in positivity and the possibilities ahead of me. Four I celebrate who I am and what I am capable of. And five, I am geared up for my success.